12 Reasons
by LadyPalma
Summary: 12 drabbles, 12 songs and 12 reasons to ship Hooked Queen.


**1 – Loss of true love**

_**It's like you're my mirror**__**  
**__**My mirror staring back at me**_

_**[Mirrors – justin Timberlake]**_

"But what can you possibly know about love and loss, _your majesty_?"

Regina stared at him for a while, letting the words hung in the air. She had never seen him so angry before, probably because he had never been.

" His name was Daniel" she chose to say, finally.

Her voice seemed cold, far, so much emotionless to almost appear cruel. But the emotion was there and it was all in her eyes, caught up in a hard fight with the tears, who were threatening to fall. And they won, eventually.

"What happened?"

Seeing that strange reaction, he almost forgot his own pain: he wasn't angry anymore, there was a concerned curiosity in his look and that look was simply inviting her to let it go, to open up.

As if she were in front of a mirror.

* * *

**2 – Pursuit of revenge **

_**I want your love and**__**I want your revenge**__**  
**__**You and me could write a bad romance**_

_**[Bad romance – Lady Gaga]**__**  
**_

She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, but she was only in appearance trying to regain her self-control, actually she was looking for the courage to loose it completely.

"I will have my revenge" she announced firmly, looking finally to the man in front of her.

The captain sighed heavily, but a smirk crossed his face.

"I'm the perfect ally for that, you know, love" he assured in a serious tone, but his eyes were travelling down her body and his thoughts miles away from the crocodile.

Their eyes met again and their lips were just inches away.

Somehow they knew that the attempt of revenge would have tasted really _sweet_ this time.

* * *

**3 – Real connection**

"_**You only know what I want you to"**__**  
**__**"I know everything you don't want me to"**_

_**Oh I don't love you but I always will**_

_**[Poison & Wine – The civil war]**_

The truth about Hook and Regina was that she had always underestimated him and he had always been scared of her. That was the reason why they never thought of being something more than fixed-term allies.

When she saw his unexpected attempt to save the Prince in Neverland, and he saw her efforts to come back to her son, something somehow changed though.

She saw a possible hero, he saw a normal human being.

She probably considered him less than before, he probably became even more scared.

But those were exactly the moments when they really felt that _real connection_, and they both started to slowly, secretly, unwarily, fall in love with each other.

**4 – Lonely life**

_**My dear old friend, take me for a spin**__**  
**__**Two wolves in the dark, running in the wind**__**  
**__**I'm letting go, but I've never felt better**__**  
**__**Passing by all the monsters in my head**_

_**[Slow and steady – Of Monsters and Men]**_

"I won't admit it again… But you were right"

Hook chuckled softly as those words escaped her mouth.

Probably it was the wine talking and the rum laughing, but that evening had been special, indeed.

She had been quite skeptical to say the least, but with the perspective of a few drinks and a disinterested chat, he somehow convinced her to join him, and now they were both on his ship, looking at the dark sea and talking about nothing and everything at the same time.

They weren't used to that, they were used to emptiness, darkness and loneliness instead, but in that moment they were experienced something totally different, something they had probably never felt in their whole life.

Serenity, tranquility.

"I'm always right love"

It was her turn to chuckle now and as their laughs mixed, the cage around their hearts cracked a bit.

* * *

**5 – Sexual tension **

_**Come and take a walk on the wild side**__**  
**__**Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain**__**  
**__**You like your girls insane, so**__**  
**__**Choose your last words, this is the last time**__**  
**__**'Cause you and I**__**, w**__**e were born to die**_

**[**_**Born to die – Lana Del rey]**_

"What does that… what does that mean?" he managed to ask, breathing hard for the kiss they just shared.

The storm around them totally reflected the inner storm of emotion and the pouring rain was somehow making that passionate encounter sound more sinful.

They looked at each other in silence, letting the sky's anger talk for them; then he didn't even wait for the answer he was looking for and suddenly claimed her lips again.

There had only been a true love in their life. _Milah and Daniel._

And there had only be a second chance at love. _Emma and Robin._

But there had always been undeniable sexual tension between them and that attraction was right now the only thing that was making them feel alive.

* * *

**6 – Second chance**

_**Oh we can be Heroes,**__**  
**__**Just for one day**_

_**[Heroes – David Bowie]**_

The long was road: it wasn't enough a promise to cancel a past, it wasn't enough a heroic act to be a hero.

They weren't asking for nothing else but a second chance, but who could possibly give it to them? Anyway, they believed they deserved it, because evil isn't born, but made and after all suffering should be repaid somehow.

"So, should I consider you a hero now?" she said, taking a sit beside him.

The celebration for the return of the Jolly Roger and its passengers from Neverland was going on around them, but they didn't seem to care that much. Because that feast wasn't for them after all, it was for the heroes.

"You have done more heroic things than me, my queen, but they don't call you hero… There's no fear for me" he replied, hinting a bitter smile.

She smiled back and nodded slowly "So, what are we? A sort of good villains?"

"I daresay heroes for just one day, it sounds more appropriate"

Regina smiled again at that definition and emptied the shot of _rum_.

She liked the sound of that and she wasn't alone in that situation.

* * *

**7 – It takes a villain to get a villain**

_**I am in love with what we are,**__**  
**__**Not what we should be.**_

_**[Animal – Kesha]  
**_

"I understand you" he uttered, giving her a quick glance.

"Of course you do, it's not difficult to understand what I said" she replied, ironically.

"No, I didn't say that I understand your words… But that I understand _you_, love"

There was no pity or mockery in his tone and the unexpected seriousness in his look was preventing her from using ironic. _Again_.

He wasn't going to show a solution to her existential problem, he was just showing her that he was there and he was crossing the same clouded road and that was exactly she needed in that moment.

_It takes a villain to get a villain perhaps, or maybe it just takes to be themselves sometimes._

"Thank you"

* * *

**8 – She didn't forget about that (but maybe he did)**

_**Once upon a time on the same side, the same game**__**  
**__**And why'd you have to go, have to go and throw water on my flame?**_

_**[Princess of China – Coldplay feat Rihanna]**_

How many times had they betrayed each other? So many that they started loose count. But she didn't forget about all of that at all.

At least until that moment. The moment when a jet of fire almost hit her arm and the only thing that saved her was a hook that pulled her away in the perfect moment.

"I suppose I should thank you" she murmured wrapped in his strong arm, slightly surprise by that unexpected rescue.

"Save it, love… That was more than just a matter of pride"

And as Maleficent under her dragon form, kept on threatening them, he just winked at her, the memory of the cliff seemed so long gone.

_Because she didn't forget about the betrayal, but maybe he did._

* * *

**9 – Care to join me for a drink? / I don't do rum**

_**Here's to us, here's to love  
All the times that we've messed up  
Here's to you, fill the glass**_

_**[Here's to us – Halestorm]**_

"Care to join me for a drink?"

That not so unexpected invite reached her along with the sudden flashback of the time when she was the one to have asked that question. In her castle, when she was still queen, at least 30 years before.

"I don't do rum" she rejected the offer, hinting a smile.

Now it was his turn to remember and the memory was more recent this time.

"I don't have only rum, love…" Hook replied, glancing around his ship and lingering on some forgotten still full bottles "There is beer, wine, vodka, tequila…"

"Ok, that's fine" she interrupted him with a clear smirk "You bought me with vodka"

The captain laughed loudly and extended his only hand to the drink, pouring it into a shot. Regina was immediately to taste it, when a silent, eloquent, look from him made her stop.

"Here's to us" he said raising his own glass and making it touch hers.

"Here's to us" she whispered back with a soft smile, looking in his eyes, maybe for more than necessary.

Then, they both looked away as if they got burnt and let the drink burn their throats, to prevent them from saying aloud another reason to toast.

"_Here's to love_"

* * *

**10 – Philosophical talks**

"_**There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back"**__**  
**__**"Well tell her that I miss our little talks"**_

_**[Little talks – Of Monsters and Men]**_

"Do you think that Emma will choose me in the end?"

Regina raised an eyebrow and turned back to the captain. The waiting look on his face was just a proof that she had actually heard it right.

"I don't think so" she replied after some moments, bluntly as the bluntness of the question required "Emma will choose Neil, because he's her true love and always will be"

Hook didn't get angry or make a nasty remark, he just nodded and actually she hadn't expected him to do otherwise.

"I know… Heroes and villains together… It doesn't sound right" he stated with a sigh.

It was not a bitter one though, the truth was that he was actually smiling, because even if what was left of his life was falling apart, in moments like that he was feeling fine.

Maybe it was because of those _philosophical talks_.

* * *

**11 – Perfect parents**

_**'Cause I think that we're the same**__**  
**__**We've got the same old hands**__**  
**__**We've made the same old plans**__**Time is taking over**__**  
**__**Look how far we've come**__**  
**_

_**[Look how far we've come – Imagine Dragons]**_

Regina approached his husband slowly and touched gently his arm to recall his attention. He seemed so focused on the scene in front of him that it took some time before he acknowledged her presence.

"Hey, is everything okay, love?" he asked then, turning just enough to look at her.

"I should be the one to ask you this question" she replied, raising both her eyebrows and then silently joining him to his spying mission.

Just a few steps from the couple, two seesaws were moving together and two childish laughs were mixing in the bright garden of the mansion. A raven haired little girl and a bit older boy were the cause of that joy and it was like that everyday since they came to the world.

"Thank you for all of this" Hook said, holding close his wife and closing his eyes for a moment "Thank you for this perfect family"

And then, unexpectedly an ironic laugh escaped his lips.

_I can live without Regina_ – once he said.

* * *

**12 – Villains can get happy endings**

_**The reason I hold on**__**  
**__**'Cause I need this hole gone**_

_**[Stay – Rihanna]**_

"Do you still believe that villains can't get happy endings?"

There was pride in his tone, some sort of ill-concealed fear and somewhere a hint of hope too.

And all those feeling were reflected into her eyes.

It wasn't long since they first had that talk in their way to Neverland, but this time they both knew that something had changed.

The way they looked at each other, for example.

Or maybe their more and more intimate conversations.

The kiss they almost shared.

The words they almost said.

And the other "almost" that almost didn't exist.

"No, I don't believe that at all"

* * *

**Hey evil hookers:) I just needed to point out my main reasons to still ship them the queen and the pirate together! Hope you liked the drabbles and hope you liked the songs I chose, since for me they are some of the ones that fit better the pairing;)**

**As always, see you soon!**


End file.
